[ Reviewed by eXodus ]
Before I played this level, it had been
a while since I had sat down and enjoyed
a good Quake2 map. That said, I must say
it was a lot of fun to play through the
latest entry in the Mel Soaring series from
Shaun "Kona" Ross, one of the
more prolific single-player mappers in the
community today.
The Mel Soaring series has been around
a while, since the original one entitled
Hear Me Roar. Since then, we've seen one
HL level, one classic Quake level, and with
this latest one, a trilogy of Q2 levels
make up the full complement of MS maps.
In Ancient Rigby, Mel has been living peacefully
on his own for a while until he detects
some Strogg assembling a force at a nearby
moon. It's off to this site to end the Strogg
threat and clear out Rigby, the castle that
the map is set in.
Kona's mapping skill is evident from the
moment you touch down in the first map (Ancient
Rigby was originally one continuous level,
but due to compiling errors, it has to be
split into 2 parts). Nearly all of the textures
in the map come from a source other than
Q2, such as Hexen2 or maybe a little classic
Quake. The visuals are top-notch, and the
architecture and starry night sky compliment
the new textures very well. I really like
Shaun's ability to make environments that
are well-suited for some good Strogg bashing,
but still different enough from standard
Quake2 to make the level interesting and
aesthetically pleasing.
Gameplay is relatively simple and straightforward
in Ancient Rigby, but that doesn't mean
it isn't fun! On the contrary, this map
was actually quite fun (not frustrating
at all) and provided a good dose of that
classic Q2 action. If you're an SPQ2 veteran
like me, this level won't take you long
to complete. The map is very linear and
there are minimal other objectives besides
fragging everything in sight.
The only problem that detracted from my
enjoyment were some really bad HOM (Hall
of Mirrors) effects. They seemed to plague
the map in more than a few spots, probably
due to the way the levels were constructed.
The first trouble spot is also only one
room into the first map...
Nevertheless, if you can stand a few visual
quirks now and then, by all means pick up
this map and enjoy it. Shaun has told me
this could possibly be his last map for
Q2, so if you've enjoyed them as much as
I have, please write up a little something
and mail it off to him saying thanks for
his hard work. Good job, Kona!
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